Rafael Nadal, the twenty six old Spaniard, is regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time on clay courts, which earned him the nick name “The King of Clay.”

The Association of Tennis Professionals formerly rated Nadal as the number one tennis player in the world. He is currently rated as fourth. But even with such an impressive profile, will Rafael Nadal’s chronic knee pain prematurely end his tennis career?

Throughout Rafael’s career, he’s suffered from chronic knee problems that have no apparent cause. Recently, while getting up from a chair; he heard a loud pop in his knee, immediately followed by excruciating pain. When he was taken to the hospital for an MRI, no explanation could be found, so the doctor injected Rafael’s knee with steroids to allow him to compete in a major tournament the next day. This is just one incident of many that has plagued Rafael throughout his entire tennis career.

How can Rafael’s apparently inexplicable history of chronic knee problems be explained? The answer lies in Biomechanics (the study of how the body moves).

Biomechanics is an essential component in determining the mastery and continuation of any sport. If you’re able to move with the least amount of energy expenditure in the most mechanically efficient way, you can then achieve your highest level of performance in any given sport – only limited by your innate ability.

The body is meant to move in ‘linear mechanics’, which means that all your major weight bearing joints are functioning around their anatomical neutral position and all your major postural muscles are functioning around their physiological neutral position. This means that during intense activity, such as competing in sports, your joints will function most efficiently (in terms of movement) with the least amount of wear and tear, and your muscles will generate the maximum amount of power with the least probability of injury.

Linear mechanics results in using the least amount of energy to gain the most optimal results.

The body is not meant to move in torsional (twisting) mechanics, which means your major weight bearing joints are not functioning around their anatomical neutral position and your muscles are not functioning around their physiological neutral position. During intense activity, your joints will function with less efficiency and your muscles will not be able to generate the maximum amount of power, placing you at higher risk for overuse injuries. Torsional mechanics results in greater expenditure of energy, compromised power, accelerated joint wear and tear (osteodegenerative arthritis) and less than optimal results, such as overuse injuries.

I’ve reviewed Rafael Nadal’s body mechanics on the tennis court. Even though he has achieved a high level of execution, power and consistency; what makes his playing even more remarkable is that he has accomplished all this with inherent torsional mechanics.

For example, Rafael’s knees do not move linearly over his feet. Instead they twist in a fashion known as an oblique patellar tracking pattern. This condition will become more symptomatic as the years go by, resulting in more episodes similar to the chair incident above and in increasingly more severe chronic knee problems. Eventually, Rafael’s chronic knee pain will become so severe that his brilliant tennis career will come to an end.

I made this same prediction for Yao Ming – the ex all-star center for the Houston Rockets – by watching his movement on the basketball court. His torsional mechanics caused a repetitive left foot injury, which prematurely ended Yao’s career.

Will Nadal’s Chronic Knee Pain Prematurely End His Tennis Career?

To prevent this tragic ending from happening to Rafael, the cause of his torsional mechanics needs to be treated directly. One of the most common causes of torsional mechanics is the PreClinical Clubfoot Deformity, an inherited severe abnormal foot structure that forces the feet to twist as you stand and move. This is the foot structure that I believe Rafael Nadal was born with and is causing his chronic knee pain. This same foot structure will, I believe, prematurely end Rafael’s tennis career if not treated expeditiously.

Reading the Curing Chronic Pain website will give you more information about the abnormal foot structures Professor/ Dr.Rothbart discovered that cause many forms of chronic muscle and joint pain and help you determine whether an Initial Phone Consultation with Professor/Dr. Rothbart might be helpful.

As you learn more about my innovative therapy, you may find that addressing and effectively treating your foot structure may be the missing link to ending your long time battle with unrelenting muscle and joint pain.

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